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Thursday, 20 December 2012

Yemen transition gets more serious, more critical

The Yemeni former President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that the decrees of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to restructure and unify the army are in the interest of the nation.

"I wish the decrees will return us all to the spirit of the political settlement which was based on the GCC Initiative," said Saleh commenting on Hadi's decrees.

President Hadi issued Wednesday the expected and long awaited republican decrees for restructuring and unifying the army which was divided during the last year crisis.

The decrees made the whole army in four main components: the land, air, sea and border forces, which means cancellation of all previous names including the republican guards and the 1st armored division which were forming the two main rival factions.
The republican guards and 1st armored division will be within the land forces.

And the land forces will be divided into seven military regions.
"Making the army in four main groups, land, air, sea, border forces, means cancellation of all previous names," said Nasr Taha Mustafa, director of the Presidential Office.

" Which means there is no more something called republican guards or 1st armored division."
However, Mr Mustafa said generals Ahmed Ali and Ali Muhsen were not sacked as commanders of the republican guards and 1st armored division.

"The cancellation of the republican guards and 1st armored division does not mean sacking their commanders ( Ahmed Ali and Ali Muhsen) because these two units are no longer existing from the legal view point," said Mustafa.

The implementation of the decrees may take about five years, and modifications can happen at any time, as it was understood from the decrees.

Almost all those who were included in the decrees of yesterday, welcomed and supported the decrees as a strategic plan for building professional army to protect the nation's interests.

The general Yahya Saleh, who was sacked from the central security, welcomed the decrees and considered them brave decrees.
General Ali Muhsen also welcomed the decrees. For general Ahmed Ali, he was still in a trip outside Yemen.

The political analyst, author of three books on Yemeni crisis,Najeeb Ghallab commented on the decrees by saying:
These decrees, if translated into reality, will unify the army, and make it strong for protecting the state from rebellions and chaos.

But, the restructure should lead to neutralized, and institutionalized army.

The army should stay away from conflicts, it should not be used for settling accounts.
If the restructure is used for settling accounts this may lead to retaliation acts that will affect on the whole political settlement